Memories Which Define Us
by RosieCheeks101
Summary: This is an expansion of my story 'I'm Under My Bed'. If I were you I'd read that first but you don't have to.
1. Cat

Cat's six and her brother's picking her up and spinning her around. He's tickling her tummy and she's giggling gleefully and now he's tipping her over and dropping her on her head, she doesn't remember much for a while after that. She just remembers the tears and the screaming from her parents and she's scared.

...

She's eight now and her brother is really sick so they have to go to Seattle so he can have a special surgery. She meets a girl there with curly blonde hair who explains her mum's not well (something about alcohol poisoning but Cat's too young and naïve to understand). The girl is just a few months older than Cat and they hit it off right away. When the scary man breaks into the hospital they hide under a table and he doesn't find them but Cat loses a bit of her naivety. **((References are rich in this paragraph))**

...

She's just turned ten and she's watching her friend use the chalk that's meant for drawing to make different parts of her hair different colours. Cat giggles and decides she wants to try it so she looks at all the pretty colours and picks a red one because it reminds her of yummy cupcakes her mummy bakes when her brother's being good and she proceeds to try to colour her whole head. Her teacher yells at her and her friend and tells them to go wash it off in the sink before the bell goes.

...

Cat's thirteen and she and her friend are auditioning for Hollywood Arts together. They perform a funny little play and they actually get in. They have a sleepover at the friends house but Cat makes the mistake of asking where her mum is and her friend starts to yell at her, she never yells at Cat (she yells at everyone else but not Cat). And Cat starts to cry and her best friend stops and realises and apologises over and over again but Cat just tells her she wants to go home.

...

She's fourteen and she's hiding under her bed, covering her ears. Her strawberry blonde hair fans out around her and her large brown eyes fill to the brim with tears. Her brother is currently grabbing anything he can reach and throwing it against the wall. Her parents are trying desperately to calm him down and she knows they will eventually but for now she shakes and quivers.

...

She's fifteen and staring at the bottle of dye in her hand, thoughts are bouncing around in her brain about whether or not she should do this. She wants to make herself noticeable, her friend got herself a boyfriend and, for some reason, Cat's feeling jealous of him but she doesn't know why. She sighs and decides she'll do it, and she does. The next day when she shows up at school she runs into her friend and her friend's boyfriend practically swallowing each other's faces and the friend never even comments on the colour so she's not exactly in a good mood when she meets the new girl.

...

She's seventeen now and she's trying to help some little boys get their cat when she drops her gum in the bin so obviously she tries to find it. She doesn't see the garbage truck until she's inside of it, and then there's a blonde girl coming to her rescue and Cat faints but the girl saves her. When she finds out she doesn't have a place to sleep obviously the red head invites her to stay, she never thought she'd end up living with her.

...

Still seventeen she listens to the screams, yells and gunshots that echo through Hollywood Arts. One of her friends holds her to his chest and covers her ears while she sobs silently and whispers little things to keep herself calm. She keeps her eyes screwed shut and in her head she prays fervently for it all to be over. She's lived through this once she doesn't know if she'll survive a second time.

...

She's turning eighteen and her roommate's there with a big pink cake and Cat smiles weakly but she's not been the same since the shooting. The blonde doesn't pretend to know how Cat feels, instead she hugs her tightly and kisses her forehead, and her roommate is not a hugger. It shocks and scares both of them when Cat leans up to peck the girl on the lips. The redhead gasps and rushes out of the apartment to cry on her best friend's shoulder.

...

She's twenty and still living with the blonde girl who looks like the girl from the hospital but assures Cat she isn't. The only difference is that when Cat leans up to kiss her now neither of them are scared or shocked and it's a surprisingly happy ending for both of them.


	2. Jade

Jade's six and her parents are screaming at each other, they're always screaming at each other. She's sure it'll go away and they'll go back to loving each other, because she's six and when you're six everyone has this idea in their head that once you're married you love each other forever and ever and nothing will ever change that. She takes refuge in her pretty barbie dolls which she makes get married and live happily ever after.

...

She's eight when she gets a little brother and she thinks it means they'll stop arguing but they don't, they argue in the hospital before mummy even goes home. She spends most of her time at her friend's house. Her friend has strawberry blonde hair and big brown eyes and is royally messed up but Jade doesn't care. But then her friend has to go away to Seattle for a little bit and Jade's left alone with two bickering parents, a stupid crying baby and a collection of barbie dolls and the dolls don't live happily ever after anymore.

...

She's now ten years old and sitting in her room, trying to ignore the yelling that's going on between her parents. Her medium brown hair runs down to her shoulders and her blue-green eyes fill with resentment towards her parents. She knows today's the day, the day they finally accept their marriage is over. She takes one of her barbie dolls and glares at it's perfect face hatefully. She takes her pretty shining scissors and begins to chop off the golden locks.

...

She and her friend are thirteen and auditioning for Hollywood Arts. Jade's pessimistic and doesn't reckon they'll get in but her giggly, optimistic friend turns out to be right and they have a celebratory sleepover but she makes a mistake and asks Jade where her mum is. Her mum walked out and abandoned her family. She didn't mean to yell and she feels awful after it but her friend is easily forgiving and she'll have forgotten next time they see each other.

...

She's fourteen now and she's started putting pretty streaks in her hair and playing with scissors. She meets a guy at Hollywood Arts and she falls for him instantly. She starts to ignore her friend she auditioned with although she doesn't mean to. She wins the boy's heart and she's over the moon about it. They spend all of their time together and it's the best days of her life.

...

Now she's fifteen and there's a new girl at school who she truly dislikes from the moment they meet. Jade watches on in her acting class as the new girl kisses her boyfriend. So what if they are acting she's still pissed. She looks away from the stage and sees for the first time that the girl she calls her best friend has dyed her hair red and she's shocked and embarrassed that she didn't realise and she makes an effort to spend more time with her.

...

Jade's seventeen when she gets a letter addressed to her and her baby brother, she knows immediately who it's from but she's scared to open it so she calls her friend (the girl who she's 'hated' since her first day) and they open it together. The letter is from her mother, apologising for walking out but saying she'd do it again in a heartbeat and Jade picks up an old doll lying on the ground and throws it at the wall and the brunette tries to calm her down and she collapses onto her bed and she realises that the doll she threw is the same one that she once gave an impromptu haircut to the day her mother left and Jade finds it strangely fitting.

...

Still seventeen she sits with her head on her boyfriend's shoulder, she watches her best friend cry silently but she knows that she can't do anything to comfort the small red head. Jade herself is utterly terrified but she can't show it, she needs to be strong. She fiddles with one of her purple streaks and tries to pretend she doesn't hear the horrible noises echoing down the hall.

...

When she turns eighteen all she can think about is getting away from her family and she and her boyfriend buy an apartment together. It's in the same building that her red head best friend lives in with her friend and the girl comes crying to Jade, telling her she's messed up and that she kissed her roommate and she doesn't know what to do and Jade just holds her and tells her it's up to her to decide.

...

She's twenty and her boyfriend gets down on one knee in front of her. She smiles widely and kisses him gently before whispering a soft 'yes'. They go and tell her friend and her friend's girlfriend and Jade was wrong, _these_ are the happiest days of her life.


	3. Tori

**Chapter TextWhen Tori is six her parents are happy as can be. They're loving and they give her hugs and kisses and they love her sister and her little brother as well. Then the accident happens. Tori doesn't really understand, all she knows is before they crashed their car she had a brother, and after it she doesn't. Trina seems to understand better what's happening, and the seven year old sits and cries while mum and daddy fight. When Tori is six her parents are happy as can be. They're loving and they give her hugs and kisses and they love her sister and her little brother as well. Then the accident happens. Tori doesn't really understand, all she knows is before they crashed their car she had a brother, and after it she doesn't. Trina seems to understand better what's happening, and the seven year old sits and cries while mum and daddy fight. When Tori is six her parents are happy as can be. They're loving and they give her hugs and kisses and they love her sister and her little brother as well. Then the accident happens. Tori doesn't really understand, all she knows is before they crashed their car she had a brother, and after it she doesn't. Trina seems to understand better what's happening, and the seven year old sits and cries while mum and daddy fight.**

When Tori is six her parents are happy as can be. They're loving and they give her hugs and kisses and they love her sister and her little brother as well. Then the accident happens. Tori doesn't really understand, all she knows is before they crashed their car she had a brother, and after it she doesn't. Trina seems to understand better what's happening, and the seven year old sits and cries while mum and daddy fight.

...

She's eight and her mum starts bringing home daddy's work partner for adult games in her bedroom while Trina and daddy go on their fishing trips. Her mum tells her it's a secret and Tori just shrugs because she supposes adults should get a chance to play too and she goes back to her dolls. Sometimes she even makes her adult dolls play adult games, like Ring-Around-the-Rosie and Duck, Duck, Goose.

...

A thirteen year old Tori sits on her bed, straightening her hair and pretending she doesn't hear the noises coming from her parent's room down the hallway. Her dark brown hair is pulled back so she can style it and her matching coloured eyes water slightly. Her mum still tells her that it's a secret but now that Tori knows what secret she's keeping she wants nothing more than to tell her dad.

...

When Tori's fourteen she confides in her big sister, newly transferred to a fancy school, about their mother's affair. Trina sits her down and tells her not to tell anyone else, and that she already knows, because it's none of their business how fucked up their parents are. And Tori finds that pretty stupid as far as advice goes, but Trina's her big sister and she trusts her, and she'd never lie, would she?

...

She's fifteen when she starts at Hollywood Arts and she doesn't know what possesses her to do it but all of a sudden she's kissing a boy with a girlfriend in front of her class. She regrets it afterwards, not just because the girlfriend is scary and hates her and loves scissors, but also because she always promised herself she wouldn't be like her mother. She comes home from her first day of school in tears and cries into Trina's shoulder all night.

...

Seventeen is when Tori let's all the words she's wanted to say to her dad for so long come tumbling out of her mouth. Her mum makes one too many comments about his partner and she breaks, screaming at her parents every little secret she's stocked up over the years about each of them. She leaves the house quickly, before the panic sets in, and wanders, eventually finding herself at her friends apartment. He smiles and let's her in, no questions asked.

...

Not a year later Tori rests her head against the wall and clutches Trina's hand tightly. Her other hand rests on her friend with the dreadlocks shoulder, comforting him silently while he holds their small friend with the red hair. Her sister whimpers every time they hear a noise, whether it be a scream or a gun shot or the scuffling of someone's shoes on the ground but Tori acts unaffected, she has learnt long ago how to ignore unpleasant things.

...

Tori's eighteen and out of the house and into college quicker than her parents can blink. She goes to study acting, still keeping in touch with her old friends. When she sees the boy with the dreadlocks for the first time in six months, for Christmas, she's filled with a rush of emotions, and somehow the half-Latina finds herself kissing him, and then they're doing other things in his apartment, the next morning she's gone.

...

It's not until Tori turns twenty that she sees him again. She knows he's alright from updates from her friends, but on her 20th birthday he shows up with a large smile and a bottle of cheap, wine. She laughs and invites him inside and they talk and laugh and dance and sing and drink, and they're happy.


End file.
